''Machichnus'' is an ichnogenus. It was erected by Mikuláš et al. (2006) for shallow, thin, discrete, parallel to subparallel, smooth-bottomed scratches, occurring on

bone tissue A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provi ...

in small groups or series. According to modern analogues, the series of scratches represent marks of teeth of

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

scavenging Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding be ...

reptilians and

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s. Such traces are quite frequent in the

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

record since the mid-Mesozoic, but they have seldom been described in detail. The type species/specimen of ''Machichnus'' comes from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. In this case, crocodiles are suspect as tracemakers.Mikuláš R., Kadlecová E., Fejfar O., Dvořák Z. (2007): Three New Ichnogenera of Biting and Gnawing Traces on Reptilian and Mammalian Bones: A Case Study from the Miocene of the Czech Republic. Ichnos, 13, p. 113–127. ''Machichnus'' originally contained three ichnospecies: ''Machichnus regularis,'' ''Machichnus multilineatus'', and ''Machichnus bohemicus.'' The ichnogenera ''

Brutalichnus ''Brutalichnus'' is an ichnogenus. A case study from the Miocene of the Czech Republic found that ''Brutalichnus'' and two other ichnogenera have evidence of biting and gnawing traces on reptilian and mammalian bones. ''Brutalichnus'' contains o ...

'' and ''

Nihilichnus ''Nihilichnus'' is an ichnogenus of trace fossil A trace fossil, also called an ichnofossil (; ), is a fossil record of biological activity by lifeforms, but not the preserved remains of the organism itself. Trace fossils contrast with bo ...

'' were described in the same paper.

References

Trace fossils {{trace-fossil-stub

See also

References